Royal Pari Fútbol Club, best known as Royal Pari, is a

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club based in

Santa Cruz de la Sierra Santa Cruz de la Sierra (; "Holy Cross of the Mountain Range"), commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the largest city in Bolivia and the capital of the Santa Cruz Department (Bolivia), Santa Cruz department. Situated on the Pirai River (Bolivia), P ...

. Founded in 2002, it plays in the

Bolivian Primera División The División de Fútbol Profesional is the top-flight professional football league in Bolivia. Until 2017 it was known as the "Liga de Fútbol Profesional Boliviano" (; en, Bolivian Professional Football League). Since 1950, a total of 16 clubs ...

after being promoted for the 2018 season.

History

The club was founded in 2002 in El Pari neighborhood in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, taking its name from it. It entered the Santa Cruz Association Championships, reaching the association's Primera B (third tier) in 2006 but being relegated after finishing last in the relegation tournament. Royal Pari returned to Primera B in 2009 and stayed in this division until 2012, when it was promoted to the ACF's Primera A. The club had poor results in its first season in the competition, getting only 23 points in 38 matches and conceding 80 goals. On 14 September 2013, the club was purchased by the Grupo SION, and returned to the ACF's Primera A after just one season by winning the Primera B championship. In their return to the Primera A for the 2014–15 season, the club established an unbeaten streak of 12 matches and ended up as runners-up after losing a tiebreaker match to Guabirá, thus qualifying for the

Copa Bolivia La Copa Bolivia is an official football competition organized by the Bolivian Football Federation, which is played by the direct elimination system, the winner of which qualifies for a Copa Simón Bolívar. History La Copa Bolivia was first hel ...

, which was held in

. The club finished in first place of its group after beating Deportivo Arauco Prado and qualified for the

Liga Nacional B The Liga Nacional B was the second tier of the Bolivian Football pyramid between 2011 and 2016. The inaugural season was scheduled to last from August 6, 2011 until April 8, 2012. In 2012–13 comprised the champions of the nine Bolivian Regional ...

. The 2015–16 season was Royal Pari's first appearance in the Nacional B, in which they were eliminated from the semifinal stage on goals scored after losing to Universitario de Tarija. Royal Pari returned to the Primera A championship for the 2016–17 season, finishing as runners-up in the first stage and in fifth place in the second stage. Since

Destroyers In navy, naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a Naval fleet, fleet, convoy or Carrier battle group, battle group and defend them against powerful short range attack ...

had won both stages and had become champions as a result, the runners-up of both stages had to play for the second berth into the national second tier championship, now the

Copa Simón Bolívar Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Computer Operator Programming Assistant. trade of ITI * Child Online Protection Act, a former U.S. law to protect minors from certain material on the internet * Canadian Owners and Pilots Asso ...

. In that tiebreaker, Royal Pari beat Real América and qualified for the competition along with Destroyers. For the 2017 Copa Simón Bolívar, Royal Pari was placed in a group with the representatives from the departments of

Beni is a Japanese R&B singer, who debuted in 2004 under the Avex Trax label. In 2008, Arashiro left Avex Trax and transferred to Universal Music Japan where she started to perform as simply Beni (stylized as BENI). She was initially best known fo ...

, Pando, and fellow Santa Cruz representative Destroyers. After an outstanding campaign in this stage, in which it earned 24 points in 10 matches, it qualified to the semifinals where they faced Atlético Bermejo from the department of

Tarija Tarija or San Bernardo de la Frontera de Tarixa is a city in southern Bolivia. Founded in 1574, Tarija is the largest city and capital and municipality within the Tarija Department, with an airport (Capitán Oriel Lea Plaza Airport, (TJA)) offe ...

. The first leg was won by Royal Pari by a score of 1–0, while the second leg in Bermejo ended in a 2–2 draw that qualified the club for the final. In the final, Royal Pari faced

Deportivo Kala ''Deportivo'' (Spanish, 'sporting') may refer to: * Deportivo de La Coruña, commonly known as simply Deportivo, a Spanish football club * Déportivo Déportivo is a French rock band from Bois-d'Arcy, Yvelines, a suburb of Paris. About the b ...

from

Oruro Oruro (Hispanicized spelling) or Uru Uru is a city in Bolivia with a population of 264,683 (2012 calculation), about halfway between La Paz and Sucre in the Altiplano, approximately above sea level. It is Bolivia's fifth-largest city by populat ...

, with whom it drew both legs, forcing a tiebreaker match played in

Sucre Sucre () is the Capital city, capital of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the List of cities in Bolivia, 6th most populated city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of . T ...

which was won by Royal Pari by a 6–2 score, thus earning its first ever promotion to the División Profesional. In their first season in Bolivia's top tier and led by Peruvian manager

Roberto Mosquera Roberto Orlando Mosquera Vera (born 21 June 1956) is a Peruvian people, Peruvian association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player who played as a Forward (association football), forward. He is the current m ...

, Royal Pari managed to end in third place in the Torneo Clausura (after leading the tournament for several matches and having a chance to win it on their last game against eventual champions San José) and fifth place in the aggregate table, performance which was enough to assure them a berth into the

2019 Copa Sudamericana The 2019 Copa CONMEBOL Sudamericana was the 18th edition of the CONMEBOL Sudamericana (also referred to as the ''Copa Sudamericana'', or pt, Copa Sul-Americana), South America's secondary club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. Ecuadori ...

, the first time the club has qualified for an international competition. Royal Pari defeated

Monagas ) , anthem = '' Himno del Estado Monagas'' , image_map = Monagas in Venezuela.svg , map_alt = , map_caption = Location within Venezuela , pushpin_map = , pushpin_m ...

from Venezuela on penalties and

Macará Macará is a city in the Loja Province of Ecuador. It is the seat of the Macará Canton and is on the border between Ecuador and Peru. The population as of a 1995 census was 11,841 and in 2009 it had an estimated population of 12,896. It is ser ...

from Ecuador on away goals in the first two rounds of the competition before being knocked out in the round of 16 by Colombian club

La Equidad Club Deportivo La Equidad Seguros, also known as La Equidad, is a professional Colombian football team based in Bogotá, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at the Metropolitano de Techo stadium. History ...

Supporters

The club began to gain followers among

evangelical Christians Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "born again", in which an individual experi ...

, because it was considered a Christian club when in 2013 it passed into the hands of the Sion business group, a company run by Christians. The club also quotes verses from the Bible on its social media. Being his early

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

followers, many of them also follow

Christian Zionism Christian Zionism is a belief among some Christians that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land and the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 were in accordance with Bible prophecy. The term began to be used in the mid-20th century i ...

and are pro-Israel. Over time, due to its sporting achievements, the club has gained a following outside of the evangelicals, mainly in Santa Cruz.

La 12

It is the official group of fans of the club, they stand out for the cleaning of garbage that their members do at club matches.

Current squad

Honours

Domestic

**Winners (1): 2017 * ACF Primera A **Runners-up (2): 2014–15, 2016–17

References

External links

Official website
{{Bolivian Primera División Football clubs in Bolivia Association football clubs established in 2002 2002 establishments in Bolivia